Investigation of a new low cost and low consumption single poly-silicon memory

Abstract

In this paper is presented an investigation on a new low cost and voltage consumption single poly-silicon memory cell for passive RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification)applications. This structure is low cost due to its single poly-silicon design. This memory cell has two particularities : the first one is that no deported capacitor is necessary to program this cell which allows to reduce the structure size to 1.1μm². The second one is the way the cell is erased. A Zener diode is used to generate carriers in order to be injected into the floating gate. This Zener diode is one of the key points for the functionality that has to be validated with some electrical trials. These trials permit to integrate and use the Zener diodes measured in simulations of the complete memory cell. This is done to validate the best candidate between the Zener diodes used for the cell and highlight the efficiency in consumption and rapidity to erase the cell. Besides, the writing and the reading cases are simulated in order to show the low consumption required by the cell during these phases.

Keywords

• Zener Effect
• Low Cost
• Low Consumption
• Single Poly-Silicon Memory